Written by: Adam F. Goldberg, Hans Rodionoff
Art by: Nathan Stockman
Colors by: Ruth Redmond
Letters by: VC’s Clayton Cowles
Cover art by: Patch Zircher, Brian Reber
Cover price: $3.99
Release date: November 9, 2022
Damage Control #4 moves Gus to the Research & Development department, where the infamous Eugene Strausser creates unique gadgets to help the Search & Rescue teams, as long as he doesn’t revert to becoming a super-villain… again.
Is It Good?
Hats off to Goldberg and Rodionoff for maintaining consistency with this series. Damage Control #4 is a consistently unfunny entry with corny jokes, situational humor that barely qualifies as a situation, and an ending that brings Gus back to where he started… again. Yes, you can make the case that humor is subjective, so you may find some amusement in classic Marvel supervillains saying weirdly unexpected things. Adjust your expectations accordingly.
After the events of issue #3, Gus is still trapped in the form of a 20-story guinea pig. Bart, recognizing that Search & Rescue isn’t the best place for Gus, decides to tap the resident, loony gadget master, Eugene Strausser, to take Gus on as an assistant in the Research & Development department. Gus is known for his technical prowess and flipping to villainous ways in the past, so a reference to his record generates a new flip in Eugene, who decides to persuade Gus to become his villain sidekick.
What follows is a montage where Eugene drags Gus around to meet a cavalcade of Marvel villains to help convince Gus that the villain’s life is the right career choice. The jokes in this issue all rely on how much humor you take from Eugene approaching everyone from Mephisto to Doctor Doom to get their take on how great it is to be a villain. Do those jokes land? “Land” is too strong a word. It’s more accurate to say the jokes are generally less cringey than a collection of dad jokes read from an old book.
In the end, Eugene takes a reckless step and decides to go the villain route alone, leaving Gus and Bart to consider the next department to try, and it may be the best fit yet for Gus. We shall see.
The art’s fine. Stockman’s style plays up the story’s farcical aspects, homaging MAD magazine parodies of old. Redmond’s colors are excellent, and Stockman’s line work is top-notch.
About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.
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Final Thoughts:
Damage Control #4 rinses and repeats Gus’s efforts to find a good fit for himself at the titular agency. The jokes are cornier than a cornfield in Kansas, the farcical humor misses more than it lands, and by the end, you feel like you’re reading a comic version of a sitcom doomed to cancellation.
Weird Science Marvel Comics 